Posted
by
Soulskill
on Friday January 11, 2013 @05:20PM
from the do-we-call-swayze-or-hemsworth dept.

snydeq writes "Tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft were no-shows at CES this week in Las Vegas, which worked out just fine for Chinese vendors looking to establish a name for themselves with U.S. consumers. 'Telecom suppliers Huawei and ZTE, in particular, have set their sights on breaking into the U.S. market for smartphones and tablets. ... Whether these Chinese imports can take on the likes of Apple and Samsung remains to be seen, but as Wired quotes Jeff Lotman, the CEO of Global Icons, an agency that helps companies build and license their brands: "The thing that's amazing is these are huge companies, and they have a lot of power, but in the United States nobody has heard of them and they're having trouble gaining traction, but it's not impossible. Samsung was once known for making crappy, low-end phones and cheap TVs. Now they're seen as a top TV and smartphone brand."'"

I have a Star N8000 (AU$130) which I've had for about a year now (Galaxy Note clone), and a JiaYu G3 (AU$230) just bought.

The Star runs Android 4.03 nicely, has been very robust (in a standard supplied cover) and performs well. I bought it for it's dual SIM capability which makes staying connected while travelling much easier and cheaper, but it's become my main phone because it's so versatile (even includes an analogue TV tuner).

The G3 is new, but so far it feels nicely made. It's very fast, has a brilliant display, two SIMs and runs Jelly Bean. I bought it to test, but my GF saw it when it arrived, so I haven't been able to do much testing... It's easily the slickest phone I have (limited) access to.

I have no doubt that the Galaxy SIII and iPhone are well made, but in Australia they're triple the price of my phones and less versatile.